Highlights of Our Trip

We did a lot of things over the 56 days we were away. People ask us what were the best things you did. So here goes (in no particular order):

Marsha and Karen

Our 13 day stay in New Orleans LA

By staying for such a long time, we got something we rarely get: we got to know our way around a town, to find some of the wonderful, but not so often seen places -- and amazingly enough, a great desire to go back to New Orleans to see all of the things we didn't see this time. Our time in New Orleans was made even better by meeting and getting to know Karen Dolan, the owner of the AirBnB accommodations where we stayed. It's rare that we feel that our accommodations are one of the highlights of a trip. Karen's warm hospitality was unique and appreciated.

This appears to be a franchise that Norwegian Cruise Lines had a version on board the ship.

Outside the Barnes Foundation Museum

The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia PA

The Barnes Foundationis unlike any other art museum we have seen in the way Albert Barnes chose to display his huge collection of Impressionist paintings. This new museum in effect showcases how the pictures were displayed in the old Barnes Museum in Marion, PA because the galleries in the new museum are reproductions of the rooms in the old museum.

We found this visit stimulating for several reasons: First, the shear number of priceless masterpieces in one museum is impressive -- verging on overwhelming. Second, is the unusual arrangement of the art in the museum. We still are not sure whether Barnes' ideas about showing art are valid, but this museum is certainly a great example of what Barnes had in mind. This museum, as well as the Philadelphia Museum of Art is worth a trip to Philadelphia.

Unpretentious Kava Island Eats

Kaya Island Eats, Key West FL Just outside of Key West, we discovered a great restaurant: Kaya Island Eats. With all of the restaurants in Key West, we hadn't found one that seemed special. We searched TripAdvisor for something that fit this bill. Although we weren't sure, we took a chance and drove 11 miles back towards Miami from Key West) for a restaurant that seemed different. Boy was it! Here is Marsha's TripAdvisor review. We liked it so much that we went back for lunch on our way back to Miami.

A "Seafood Boil" like no other

The Commander's Palace, New Orleans LASpeaking of restaurants, in New Orleans we were blown away by the food, the presentation and the service at Commander's Palace. This was one of the unforgettable restaurants we ate at in New Orleans. Expensive. Even for the Saturday afternoon Jazz Brunch. But everything was perfect. For example, each time we were served a course, two waiters arrived at the same time and put our plates down at the exact same time. We saw this happen for much larger parties.

Elizabeth's Restaurant

Elizabeth's, New Orleans LA

Another great New Orleans restaurant was 2 1/2 blocks away from where we were staying: Elizabeth's. Don't be fooled by its rather shabby exterior or the somewhat dilapidated neighborhood: this is an excellent restaurant in a wonderful neighborhood. We went here several times, once for brunch. Marsha's choice that way was a corn bread waffle topped with a sweet potato / duck hash, with a dollip of hot pepper jelly. Oh, and did I mention the strips of praline-bacon we had as a side order?

One of Four Buildings of the WWII Museum

The World War II Museum, New Orleans LA

The World War II Museum is a national treasure. If you are like me (Harry), you have seen a lot of films and read a lot of stories about World War II, but never integrated it all together into a complete view of that era. Visiting this museum was time in my 65 years that I managed in 1 1/2 days to understand the full picture of World War II. There are several buildings that make up the museum. In the main building, they divide the War into two parts, the Pacific War and the European War. For each part, they have two section: events that lead up to the War, and campaigns of the War. This organization was the first time that all of the various diverse pieces of WWII history have come together for me.

Dry Tortugas National Park

Dry Tortugas National Park, Key West FL

One of our extravagances was to take a day trip on a boat to Dry Tortugas National Park, off the coast of Florida at Key West. We've seen the picture to the left and often dreamed about traveling to such an exotic looking place. Well, although our view of it from sea level wasn't quite as spectacular as this, never the less, it is a very interesting trip.

Walter Anderson Museum, Ocean Springs MS

The Walter Anderson Museum was a completely new introduction to an artist we did not know about before this visit. When we first saw prints of Anderson's work we were not entirely convinced of his genius. Once we viewed the original work we were instantaneous fans. The fact that Walter was not entirely sane adds just the right touch of quirkiness to his work.

The Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Duncan Phillips was an heir to the Pittsburgh Steel fortune. He founded the Phillips Collection in memory of his father and brother. The museum is a good place to look at art. You feel comfortable. Many rooms have actual chairs, not benches, where you can comfortably sit and enjoy the scene. The reason we went to the Phillips in the first place was to see Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party. It did not disappoint. There were many other wonderful individual paintings as well as collections (four Mark Rothko displayed in a room that Rothko helped design.

Laura Plantation House

Laura Plantation, Vacherie LA

The 1805 house at the Laura Plantation in Vacherie, LA was unlike our image of a Plantation House. Not white but painted yellow and blue and red and even some green. The Plantation was owned and operated by generations of strong Creole women the last of whom was the namesake Laura.

We learned a lot about Creole culture and improved our knowledge of what Plantations were all about, in addition to being made economically viable by horrible slavery. This new understanding doesn't change our disgust when thinking about slavery, but fills in some missing knowledge. Many people advised us that if we were going to see just one Plantation to go see Laura. We did see others, and would agree with this advice. This place is a gem.

The original slave quarters of Evergreen Plantation

Evergreen Plantation, Edgard LA

After visiting the Laura Plantation, we we tried to see The Evergreen Plantation but it was closing. The tour guide invited us to come back when she was next going to be guiding. This turned out to be a good thing, because she brought to the tour a magic ingredient: She was a member (by marriage) of the original family that owned the plantation. Her stories about the family, including behavior traits of tenacity that she sees in her husband and children were spellbinding. We were sitting on the edges of our seats listening to her. Evergreen is special because it has 37 buildings that are on the Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark. One other thing we found out about Evergreen is that the film Django Unchained was filmed there.

English Farm

Frontier Culture Museum, Staunton VA

We had been to the Frontier Culture Museumfive years ago. It was raining when we were there so a return visit was in order. The premise of the museum is to show the cultures of people who came to the Shenandoah Valley by showing original farm buildings from four foreign countries (Ireland, England, Germany and Africa) from which they came and how the buildings and artifacts of the immigrants' home lands fit together into a chronological succession of three American farms (1740s and 1820s and 1850s). A very interesting museum.